


And Into the Black

by petpluto



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Case of the Week, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Mystery, POV Male Character, Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-07
Packaged: 2018-01-11 12:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1173065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petpluto/pseuds/petpluto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Logan hires Weevil to keep an eye on Veronica in Lord of the Pi's, instead of Mountain Man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Into the Black

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Weevil and all other characters here belong to Rob Thomas. The plot belongs to Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero. Any actual dialogue comes from [Veronica Mars Transcripts](http://vmtranscripts.com/season_3/3-08-the-lord-of-the-pi-s/).
> 
> This is another one of the vmficrecs ficlets challenges, this time for [Weevil Week](http://vmficrecs.tumblr.com/post/74793729051/weevil-appreciation-week-ficlet-challenge).
> 
> It turned into more than a ficlet, and I fully blame Weevil for that. He wanted to show me where the story went, and I followed his lead.

It isn’t something he ever anticipated, coming home from work and having Echolls haunting his stoop, hunched over and nursing a beer from a six pack. He and Echolls, he thought they had an understanding. Thought Echolls knew he’d sooner fuck him up as look at him, if he hadn’t managed to be one of the people who squirmed into Vee’s perpetual good graces. Thought Echolls would sooner drink acid, or something equally dramatic, than willingly spend time with him. 

He almost wants to hightail it out of there, go crash at the local bar for a few hours. Leave the guy waiting until he gives up. But he knows a little something about Echolls, and that is if he dragged his ass all the way to this side of town, he sure as hell isn’t going to give up before he gets what he wants. So instead of leaving the asshole now and just finding him again in a few hours, Weevil grunts out a greeting. And Echolls just nods back until he gets closer.

“This was supposed to be a bribe, to grease the wheels,” Echolls tells him, gesturing to the beer. “But you took too long to get here.”

“So you decided you’d be able to do enough greasing on your own?” Crosses his arms, scowls down at the asshole polluting his stoop. Watches the half grin slide onto the guy’s face.

“You have a real problem with me, paco, considering that from where I’m standing, I should be the one holding the grudge against you,” he shoots out with that smile. “But I’m not here about that. I’m here about Veronica.”

“Vee? About about her?”

Echolls turns back to his bottle, starts peeling at the label. Loses the smile. Looking at him now, it’s like looking at dead space. 

“She’s gonna kill me for this, but fuck it. I don’t care.” Looks fully up at him, and Weevil sees demons in his eyes. It’s what immediately flits through his mind, the boy is flooded with demons. It’s what makes him shuffle over. It’s what makes him take one of the peace beers. Nods at the guy to continue. “Hearst rapist case, she’s been working on it.”

Weevil whistles, low and long. Didn’t know, not really, but suspected. From the first moment those girls showed up with their shaved heads and poster boards, it seemed like a case right up her alley. “Figured.”

“Yeah, well, so did the Hearst rapist.”

He chokes a bit on the beer. “What - what are you fucking saying? Did he -”

“Drugged her,” the guy says, cradling the neck of the bottle in his fingers and staring out into the night. “Started to shave her head, right back here”, the guy continues, shifting the beer to one hand and fingering a spot on his own head with his free one. “But, uh, I found her. Before. Before he could do anything else.”

“Damn,” Weevil groans. “She okay?”

“She’s Veronica. She doesn’t know how to not be.” Echolls glances at him before glancing away, and he backs away from the point.

“Sheriff must be going out of his mind,” he says instead, and Echolls snorts.

“He doesn’t know. Not all of it. Not about the hair bit. Asshole would have thrown me out of the apartment if I hadn’t stormed away first. Veronica doesn’t want him to know. And I’m - well,” he says, and it’s like watching a pitch man Weevil thinks, the way the switch gets flipped, all bright eyes and smiles where just seconds ago there was only darkness, “That’s why I’m here. I need you to do your bodyguarding. Your knight in black leather duties.”

He nods, in solidarity. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever, man. I’ll do it.”

“This isn’t a favor, compadre,” Echolls spits out, switch flipping once more, his finger coming down repeatedly on the rickety railing. “This is for cash money. I’m paying you to watch her. To keep her safe. Twenty four seven, you get me? Maybe then you can fix up this shit hole.”

And it’s back to wanting to shove the guy’s teeth down his throat, Weevil thinks as he pushes himself up and over the jackass. “Listen, dickweed, I got a job, okay? A real one that I gotta keep if I want my sweet ass to stay out of jail. So how’s about you go off and get some actual muscle for hire instead of trying to throw your money at me? Because I ain’t your servant, and you ain’t a dude I do favors for.”

“But Veronica is,” Echolls growls, standing up and getting in his face. “You do each other favors, right? You have some sort of complex tally system? I’m betting you’re more in the red there than she is, so you should be jumping at the opportunity to get some more black in your books. And I’m paying you for the pleasure of my girlfriend’s company.” His voice cracks, his face crumbles, and Weevil stops. The guy sniffs, slumps back, rubs his face. “I can’t just fucking hire some muscle, because she’s Veronica. She’ll figure it out, and she won’t let them do their job. They won’t get her, and they won’t know how to keep her. I need someone who knows her, who knows how she works. I need you. So, just figure it out.”

It’s not like he’s wrong about any of it; but if it wasn’t Vee, he’d tell Echolls to fuck himself just on principle. Just to put screws to the guy used to being able to throw his money around and away, used to just getting his way because of who he is and how much he has in the bank. But it is Vee. And Echolls doesn’t look like that guy right now; he just looks fucking scared shitless. Just a guy, he thinks. Just another asshole Vee’s got by the tight hairs.

“I got some vacation time saved,” he says begrudgingly. “I’ll put in for it. And then I guess I’ll follow Vee around for a while. Make sure that when she does the stupid shit, I’ve got her back.”

Echolls puffs out some air, and deflates. “Great. Good. Uh, I don’t know what the hourly rate is for a thug for hire,” and Weevil bristles again as he continues, “but I was thinking five hundred a day.”

“You’re not serious.”

“Not enough? Fine. A thousand. Whatever.”

He reels back. “How much fucking dough do you have?”

Echolls shrugs. “Does it matter? I’ve got enough to keep you employed for more than long enough for someone to catch this fucking asswipe. This is a short term assignment, got it? It’s not like I’m going to have you on my payroll for years to come. After this is all over, we go back to our separate corners.”

“You’re gonna pay me a thousand a day, to watch over Vee?”

“Contract’s null and void if anybody even so much as breathes on her,” Echolls casually states, “But yeah. You seem surprised.”

Vee’s worth it, every penny. He knows it. If he wasn’t scraping by, if Vee trusted him enough to let him know she was in trouble, he’d be doing the same thing Echolls is. But it’s Echolls, grand poobah of assholry. Lilly’s bruises, Vee’s broken headlights, burning pools, and just Echolls flirt around the edges of his vision, competing with this, this guy who slumps back down on his stoop. 

“Little bit,” he answers. “Never figured you were good for keeping Vee for all that long.”

Echolls stares up at him, and shakes his head. “Right. Because I’m the asshole. I keep forgetting that. Well, whatever. You keep thinking that. I’ll be writing the checks anyway.”

“So, boss,” he emphasizes, “when do I start?”

“Funny you should ask,” Echolls drawls. “There’s some sort of function happening tonight at the college.”

“Yeah, I know,” Weevil says. “Dean’s been on about it all day.” 

“Veronica’s there. Taking pictures.”

Weevil sighs, glances longingly at the open beer, and hands it over. “Guess I’d better head on over.”

“Yeah,” Echolls tells him. “Sounds like a plan.” He drains the two bottles into the decrepit flower bed framing the door, stands up, grabs the remaining four beer from the six pack. “Nice doing business with you.”

Mock salutes him, and slides down the stoop and saunters off down the street and out of sight.

“God, I hate that fucker,” Weevil mutters, before heading in the opposite direction.

~~~

He gets to the building just as Vee exits it, and slides up next to her as she finishes the call on her phone. 

“Geez,” she gasps, “Get a damn bell, Weevil.”

“Like the new ‘do,” he gestures, and grins as her face falls.

“Logan?”

“Echolls might have mentioned something, yeah,” he says, and lets himself take a bit of pleasure in how she darkens.

“I’m going to kill him. Slowly,” she snarls. “I can’t talk about this now, with you, because I’ve got the dean with me. I’ll call you later.”

“No can do, girly.” He shrugs. “I’ve got explicit instructions to not let you out of my sight.”

“You’re joking.”

“I’m not. And unlike Echolls, I don’t have a problem letting the Sheriff in on our little secret if you decide to do a runner.” He watches her watch him, watches her search for weaknesses.

“You would tell my dad.”

He nods. “You know how much Echolls is paying me? Much more than market value. Plus, there’s the added bonus of you owing me one for this little piece of business. It’s win-win for me, baby.”

The smile that spreads across her face is a marvel to behold, and she sidles closer to him. “I’ll owe you, huh?”

“Yeah, you will,” he tells her. “You’ll owe me, and that’s a favor I’m going to bank on. Think about it, chica. You get me as your muscle, and you get Echolls off your back. You get to have the Sheriff remain in the dark, and you get to still do your sleuthing. And I make buck. We both make out on this deal.”

Weevil puffs up a bit as she eyes him, crosses her arms, considers. “How much buck we talking?”

“You gonna pull a fast one and offer to double the rate so I let you go free?”

“Maybe.”

“Yeah, well, unless you’re heir to some fortune I don’t know about,” Weevil says, taking in the miniscule wince and pocketing that response for later examination, “that plan is out. Echolls is spending more than a pretty penny for me to watch your ass.”

“I don’t think he’d pay you very much to do that,” she smarts back. “He’s the jealous type.”

He glances away. “Yeah, well, that don’t change the facts.”

“I get a cut for letting you tag along,” she demands, and he smirks. “And, because this is seeming more and more like I’m doing you a favor, you’re free muscle on one other case of my choosing.”

“You don’t get a cut,” he pushes back, “but I will be your muscle. And this isn’t you doing me a favor. This is mutually beneficial. And I’m not in the red once this is done.”

Her face scrunches, and they both turn at the noise the dean makes as he exits the building and slowly makes his way toward them. Sticks out her hand. He takes it. “Deal. No more red. You’re back in black.”

“Pleasure doing business with you, as always,” he murmurs. “Now, where we going?”

“I don’t know where you’re going,” she answers, “but the dean and I are going home. Where your presence would not be easily explained to my detective father. Whose suspicions we don’t want to arouse.”

“Alright. I’ll walk with you to your car. Then you call me when you’re making plans for tomorrow. Because the last thing you want is for me to hunt you down. That’s when the deal gets less fun for you.”

“Got it, geez. You’re acting like I’m in some kind of danger here.” She says it flippantly, but her eyes dart toward the shadows and she gingerly touches her scalp. The same place Echolls rubbed on his head while sitting on the stoop. He growls low and she bites her lip. “I’ll call you. After I ream out a certain boyfriend about his overprotective ways.”

“Eli!” The dean calls out. “What are you doing on campus at this hour?”

Weevil turns, puts on his most innocent face. “Just going for a walk, Dean. Met up with my girl here, and stopped to talk. I’m gonna just walk her to her car, and then be on my way.”

“That sounds like a plan. Veronica, I’ll meet you at your residence.”

Veronica gives the dean a mock salute, eerily like the one Echolls threw his way earlier, and shoulder checks him. “Let’s roll.”

~~~

True to her word, Vee calls him, early in the AM. He stares groggily at the neon numbers for half a second before he realizes what’s happening. 

“What are you even doing up?” he groans into the phone when he manages to answer it. 

“I need to get to campus,” she tells him, bypassing his question completely. “And after the guilt trip I got from Logan last night, I figured I’d swing by your place and pick you up before starting my day. Twenty four-seven babysitting duty is going to be a laugh riot.”

“Yeah,” he grumbles, “I can see that. When you getting here?”

“I’m already here,” she says. “Tried ringing your bell about a dozen times. Nada. So I decided to just give you a ring instead.”

“Door bell’s broken. Super doesn’t give a shit. Why didn’t you just break in like last time?”

“You didn’t seem to appreciate it,” she sing songs into the phone, and for the briefest of seconds he envisions throttling her as he rolls out of bed and makes his way to the door. He flings it open and finds her standing there, scarf covering her head and two cups of coffee in her hands.

“Yowza,” she exclaims as she hands a cup over to him. “Did some lifting on the inside?”

“And kept up on the outside,” he mumbles before waving her in. “Lemme get some clothes on, drink some coffee, and you can fill me in on the game plan.”

“Sure,” she chirps, and leans on the wall.

“Thought I was supposed to come to you,” he calls back to her as he slides on the first pair of semi clean pants he finds, and rifles through a pile of shirts he hasn’t gotten around to putting away.

“I don’t think the Hearst rapist, or anyone else, is going to be lingering outside my apartment waiting to strike,” she retorts. “I’m giving this a try, but I’m still not entirely happy about it.”

“Yeah, alright.” He grabs the coffee and takes a swig. “What’s the game plan?”

“Selma Hearst Rose went missing last night from the reception being held for the Board of Trustees. Dean O’Dell hired my dad to find her. Dad has me scouting out the last people who last saw her on campus.”

“And these people, they gonna be up at the ass crack of dawn?” The self-satisfied smirk that lights her face gives him his answer. “Didn’t think so. How hard are you gonna make this on me?”

“Hey,” she protests, “I brought you coffee. And if you’re gonna make a thou a day watching over me, well, I’m gonna make sure it’s not an easy one.” 

“He told you.”

The smirk remains, and it’s joined by her raised eyebrows. “He told me he offered five hundred, and you turned him down flat. Nice to see what I mean to you.”

“Yeah, he would spin it like that,” Weevil growls, and he gets rewarded with a soft chuckle.

“What I want to know is how you could possibly have said no to my having a cut of that. It’s not like there’s not enough to go around.” She gives him the exaggerated bambi eyes with the added pout, and shrugs her shoulders at him as she slides on by and opens the door. “Come on, Weevs. It’s time to get on getting on.”

“It’s time to shove a gag in your mouth while I tie you to a kitchen chair,” he mumbles, and she laughs at him.

~~~

The detectiving is as much fun, as thrilling, as he remembers his bittersweet engagement at Mars Investigations to have been. Vee is all piss and vinegar, like no one ever told her about bees and honey. He gets strange looks, stranger looks than she gets, from the caterer and then from the campus feminist Vee has apparently antagonised on more than one occasion. But Vee gives him sweet smiles and feeds him, and tells him tales of campus life as PI. 

“Hey, look,” she tells him, “It’s Logan’s BFF, Dick. I wonder what his thoughts are on the SexQuest games.”

Weevil crinkles his forehead as he stares at the back of the blonde surfer’s head. “If that guy has any thoughts in that head at all, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.”

Veronica grimaces. “The stupider they look, the stupider they generally are. And Dick is particularly morally backrupt. But he can be witty, so start looking for monkeys.”

“Yeah, so you say,” he tells her disbelievingly, and she pokes him as she moves forward.

“Stay back. He’s more likely to talk to just me, than you and me.”

“Really. Because I don’t think he gives two fucks about who I am,” he hisses after her, but he stays away. Circles the area instead. Watches Veronica’s disgust envelops her, and then when the start of an idea catches her. Sees her and the frat guy get up, and start moving. That’s when he makes his way over.

“You got room for one more on this seemingly epic journey?” he asks as he slides in next to Veronica.

“Who is this dude?” Surfer Boy asks.

Veronica frowns. “This is Weevil, Dick. We’ve gone to school with him our entire schooling lives.”

“Hmm… All of those people look the same to me.”

“Great, now we get casual racism to go along with the casual sexism and disgusting displays of toxic masculinity.”

Weevil laughs, and watches as Dick’s face contorts.

“Logan’s right, Ronnie. You do college too hard.”

Veronica’s face falls for only a moment, before the mask she has begun to almost perpetually wear falls back into place. He winces for her, and, reluctantly, for Echolls as well. If he liked the guy better, he might warn him about this shit storm developing. 

“I’ll meet you by the dumpsters so you can introduce me to Morty,” she says frostily. “I’ll bring the twenty bucks, you just bring the himbo you are.”

“Will do,” the guy answers cheerily, and Weevil watches as a muscle in Vee’s jaw jumps.

“Why you letting that guy get under your skin?”

She glares up at him before marching forward. “I’m not. That would be idiotic. Much like what my boyfriend thinks of my collegiate career.”

“Uh huh,” Weevil drawls out. “Because it looks like you’re letting it get to you.”

“Nope. Now, I’m going to be alright with the fact that I basically have a paid stalker following me wherever I go, to ostensibly protect me from yet another stalker I potentially have, in order to make my boyfriend feel better about my life choices. And pull phone records. Care to join me? Oh, wait…”

“Yeah, this day’s going real well,” he grinds out. “You’re not bitching about this at all.”

“This is who I am. And if he’s going to make me feel bad about it, then -”

“Dump his ass, then,” Weevil cuts her off, and she gapes at him. “You got options.”

“I don’t want to.” She glowers at him, petulant.

“Then don’t.” He shrugs. “Odds are, your boy would continue to pay me to stalk you either way, so…”

“Since when are you Team Logan?” Veronica spits out, and Weevil stifles his laugh.

“Since never. I’m just calling it like I see it, Vee. Anyone would flip their lid if they knew. Which is why you don’t want the Sheriff or anyone else to know. Damn, why do you think I took this gig?”

“Because it pays?” she snorts back. “I can take care of myself. I don’t need you hovering.”

“Sure you can,” he answers. “It’s not like you run into danger normally.”

Her mouth drops open, and he grins at his win. 

“Come on,” she baby growls, “Phone records. Morty.”

“And who is Morty?”

“The guy who’s going to pick Chip Diller’s butt egg out of the dumpsters for me.”

Weevil stops, stares at her. “What does that have to do with this missing person case?”

“Nothing at all.”

“Anyone ever tell you you work too hard?”

Veronica’s mouth tightens. “Everyone. All the time.”

~~~

She gives him the slip after their meeting with Morty, and he’s going to kill her. Find her, kill her, and set up Echolls for the whole shebang. It’s Echolls’ fault his response to Vee not being anywhere in sight is utter panic. It’s Vee’s fault she did a runner. But without Echolls, he wouldn’t be watching over her anyway. Wouldn’t know there was someone else out there who wanted her hurt.

He finally tracks her to the food court, staking it out only because he’s never known anyone else who can eat like her. Sees her blue bandana’d head at a table with her constant side kick. He marches over, and Wallace is the one to notice his approach. Gives a little head nod as he nudges Vee. “Hey, man. What’s up?”

“Weevil is my personal man-servant. If only every girl had a boyfriend rich enough to hire personalized protection,” Veronica tells him, slipping into a Southern drawl. “We’d all be safer for it.”

Weevil glares, and Wallace laughs. “Yeah, okay. Your boyfriend is a little overprotective.”

“Like the new look you got there,” Weevil snarks, as he slides into the seat across from her, glowering. “What made you do that thing with the bandana?”

And gets sharply kicked in the shins. His glare intensifies, and Veronica ignores him.

“Why are you wearing a bandana?” Wallace asks innocently, and Vee switches her attention to him pretty damn fast at that.

“Wallace and I figured out that the numbers inside Chip’s egg are a date,” she tells him snidely. “So you and I are going to the library.”

“Library’s closed, Vee.”

“Not,” she tells him, “for the help desk girl.”

“Not sure if that’s something I’d be proudly proclaiming.”

She sniffs, and then gives him her saccharine smile. “Well, I also have an esteemed member of the Hearst janitorial staff on my payroll, with his one ring of many keys.”

“Not on your payroll,” he shoots off, and her smile just curls further.

“But?”

“But I do have my many keys,” he tells her grudgingly as she pushes out her chair and stands and follows her lead. Wallace gives them a little wave as they go. “Remember when we talked about you not running?”

“Remember when I talked about this not being easy money?” She head tilts back.

He groans. Whatever it is that got under her skin about Echolls, he doesn’t want to take the brunt of it all day and night for the next however many days. And tells her that. She looks strangely contrite.

“It’s been a weird couple of weeks,” she offers in lieu of an apology, and he takes it instead of one. Nods gruffly at her to continue. “It’s like… there’s all this space between us, and I don’t know how to make it stop getting bigger.”

“Maybe you could stop being a bitch,” he suggests. “Except, then you wouldn’t be you.”

She laughs. “Exactly. I wouldn’t be me.”

They walk in silence, and she shrinks. Curls up in on herself. He sighs. “You’re pretty banging, Vee. Remember that.”

“Thanks, Weevs. You’re kind of awesome yourself. So, which one of us is opening up these here doors?”

He glances around, and then back at her. “You. Because technically I’m on vacation this week. And potentially next.”

Her face scrunches. “How much time off do you get in a semester?”

“Only a week paid. But I can take up to another week unpaid without getting fired. Of course, those days when I was in lock up already count toward that, so…”

“So, on the list of things to accomplish, it’s either convince Logan that I don’t need a babysitter, or catch this guy, before the end of the week. Got it.” She unlocks the door and walks in, like she owns the place, and Weevil trails gingerly behind her.

Whispers, “You don’t just have to convince Echolls, now. You’re gonna need to work your magic on me too.”

“No more favors,” she shoots back absently, and then glances back at him. “Why are you whispering?”

He flushes. “Library.”

He’s not imagining the fond grin that crosses her face, and she gently teases, “Dork.”

“Shut up. What are we looking for anyway?”

“Hearst Free Press headlines. And for anything of note that happened on November 11, 2003.” He keeps an eye on her as she wanders toward a selection of leather bound books, as she pulls one off the shelves, and starts flipping through the pages.

“So, while you do that, what am I supposed to do? Twiddle my thumbs?” he snarks, and she doesn’t glance up.

“Hey, you’re the one who insists on tagging along on my every adventure, no matter how mundane,” she reasons. “Study abroad, pell grants - hold on, I think this is it.”

Crosses the room to her, and she reads, “Theta Beta pledge falls off house roof - Pitrelli ‘07 falls off sorority house roof while girls were sunbathing…”

“You’re thinking what happened to that guy was revenge for a clumsy girl?” Vee peers further down the article. 

“Maybe not clumsy. This article mentions, along with our rapist, the Pi Sigma Sigma house. Dick and Chip Miller’s frat,” she tells him, before going still. “Wait. Did you hear that?”

He stops, holds up his hand to keep her quiet, keep her still. Nothing. “No.”

She shifts, looks uneasy, and then turns back to the article. “Patrice Petrelli. Do you think you could -”

“Shut up,” he cuts her off, hearing the faintest of squeaks. “I think I hear something.” 

Vee freezes. Slowly closes the book and shuffles closer to him, coiled and ready to run. “And?”

“And we should get gone,” he decides, peeks at her for a second.

“Okay. We’re good here anyway.”

“That’s great,” he whispers. “That’ll be worth all this.”

She looks like she wants to argue, so he just holds up his hand and motions for her to follow behind. 

He creeps down the hall, glimpsing back behind him from time to time to make sure she’s stayed put. That she hasn’t disappeared on him. That no one came up from behind and grabbed her without him knowing. The urge to grab her hand, hold it tight, darts through his head. If she were a different girl, he would. But she’s not, and she’ll never accept that it would be as much for him as it is for her. Peace of mind instead of this thundercloud of worry. They creep on, down the stairs and toward a counter. Squeaking gets louder. Comes closer. He motions, and she nods, crawls underneath it. He tenses, gets ready.

And the squeaking comes into view. Everything releases.

“Hey, Paulie,” he calls out, and Paulie unplugs his headphones.

“Weevil! Thought you were gone this week, man.”

“Took some time off to help out a friend,” he says. “Just heading out now.”

“Right, right,” Paulie answers. “Well, see you around man.”

“Yeah. See you,” he echoes, and then waits for Paulie to turn the corner before going around the counter and helping Vee up and out.

She puffs out some air, and scowls darkly at him. “We tell no one about this.”

“This ain’t exactly my proudest moment ever, Vee,” he counters. “I ran away from a squeaky cart and a guy who’s idea of exercise is the walk from his couch to the fridge and then back.”

“So, we agree.”

“Damn straight,” he says, and cracks his neck. “Where to now?”

She sighs. “It’s late enough where no one will be able to tell me about Patrice Petrelli, not that these guys would talk to me anyway.”

“And why wouldn’t they do that?”

“I maybe accidentally outed their den mother as a grower of pot?” she offers weakly. “After falsely gaining access to their house by pretending I wanted to pledge?”

“You gotta get some different hobbies or something. Take up knitting or gardening or some shit.”

“Hey, that was a paying newspaper gig. It’s not my fault my editor was a raving asshole with an agenda.”

“That’s right,” he ribs. “You never have an agenda.”

“Mine are always stalwart and true and as pure as the snow,” she returns airily. “Come on. I’ll let you walk me to my car.”

“You gotta drop me off at my home, so yeah I’m walking you to your car. And then I’m getting in it.”

“Oh, yeah,” she says sheepishly. “I forgot about that.”

He shakes his head in utter disbelief. “You were gonna leave me on campus. Just drive away in a huff of unrighteous anger.”

“And annoyance. Don’t forget the annoyance.”

“Yeah, I won’t. How about you don’t wake me up before the birds tomorrow, and we’ll add this to the list of things we don’t ever mention again.”

She skips forward. “Sounds good to me!”

~~~

“I’m going to be eating lunch with Wallace,” she’d said. “You can take the afternoon off.” He’s not sure if Vee meant to be nice, or if she was just getting to the end of her rope after a few days of his guarding her body, but he couldn’t stay away. Fennel wouldn’t let anything happen to her, not if he could help it. He knows that. But while the guy might be an athlete, he’s not a brawler.

Which is why he’s staking out the cafeteria, staying out of Vee’s line of sight but keeping her in his. She’s relaxed in a way around Fennel that she’s not anywhere else, not that he’s seen in the past couple months anyway. Something happened between end of senior year to when he got out, something that’s made her harder. More brittle. Those walls of hers that were always there got some heavy reinforcement in the time he was away. And he lets himself sulk over the fact that she won’t let him in, and that no one else in her inner circle would either.

His brooding is one of the reasons he doesn’t pick up on the clues earlier, doesn’t step in until the frat guy has already thrown himself into the fight and Fennel has already tried to ride to the rescue. Doesn’t start heading over to the other side of the caf until Vee herself tries to enter the fray, because of course she does he grumbles to himself. When the flannel guy grabs her and twists her arm, he races forward, teeth bared and ready to rumble. Flannel doesn’t know what hits him as he slams his fist into the back of his head, and then grabs his arm and pinches his wrist as he winds up to punch the guy again. Vee twists and breaks away, and he wrenches the arm until the guy is bent over and whimpering. Throws him into a table for good measure. 

“Weevil,” he hears Vee screech, and he turns in time to see Flannel’s asshole friend, the one who had been beating on Fennel, flying at him. He ducks the first punch and drives one straight into his stomach.

Grabs the guy by the scruff of the neck as he starts going down, and growls, “Don’t fuck with my friends. Comprende?”

“Yeah, yeah,” the asshole pants out. “Got it.”

He flings him into his buddy, and they both go crashing down again.

“Good.” He turns, surveys the scene. “Anybody else?”

Vee races over, pulls at his arm, frantically yanking him toward the doors. He lets her hurry him out.

“Are you insane?” she shrieks as she shoves him forward. “You can’t just be doing that, Weevil! You’re on parole. You work here. You could jeopardize everything -”

“For you,” he barks back.

She bares her teeth. “I’m not worth that. And I -”

“Could what?” he demands, getting in her face. “Could handle it? Because it didn’t seem like you could from where I was standing.”

She backs away, panting heavily. “This isn’t working out. I can’t have you fighting frat guys in the cafeteria. That’s not what you’re supposed to be doing!”

“I’m supposed to be protecting you -”

“From a rapist -”

“- and that’s what I’m doing,” he finishes. “And you’re a full blown idiot if you think I wouldn’t have done that exact same thing, any time, anywhere. If I was on a shift, if I was getting lunch, if it was in front of my god damn parole officer, and I saw some dude put hands on you, I would have fucked him up.”

“You would?”

“Fuck yes. What do you think this is, Vee? It isn’t just get out of jail free cards and keys to the school. At least, not for me.”

She sniffles, and crosses her arms. He backs off, leans against the wall. 

“Okay,” she says quietly.

“Okay what?”

“I get it. You’re here for me.”

He nods. “Yeah, I am. And I ain’t the only one.”

She sighs. “Want to drive me to Logan’s?”

“Not really, no,” he answers. “But I will.”

She nods, walks down the hallway. He trails after her. She stops, and he waltzes up. “Thank you,” she tells him. “Thanks for that. And for this. Just. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

~~~

Echolls is on his porch, again, when he comes back after Vee’s showdown with the campus feminists. There’s another six pack of beer. 

“You do know it’s the middle of the damn day, right?”

“You do know my girlfriend is heading back to campus in a little bit, right?” Echolls snarks back. “Anyway, this is just for a job well done.”

Raises his eyebrows. “Job what well done?”

“Ronica told me. About your startling heroics in the cafeteria.” Echolls smiles. “And your verbal dress down after. So, the beer. And a check for your first and last week of work. Even though I’m sure several someones breathed on her.”

“You cutting me loose?”

The other guy sighs. “It’s come to my attention that you have an actual job, and real world problems that me, as a privileged little rich boy, can’t possibly fathom. So, yeah. Your services are no longer needed. At least not all day, every day. I figured we might be able to work something out around your work schedule.”

“And what does Vee have to say about that?”

Echolls’ smile turns sweet, and it unnerves him. “Veronica is actually alright with it, funny as it is to say. Considering where we started the week, she’s surprisingly okay with having semi permanent muscle. The caveats are, she gets to do the calling. I’m just pay roll now.”

“So that’s what I am? Semi permanent muscle?”

“I would call you something else, but.” He fidgets. “Veronica thinks it’s impolite.”

“I still want to put you through the nearest wall,” Weevil tells him.

“And I still want to return the favor from when you played Russian roulette with my hand,” he snaps back. “But here we are. Weirdly aligned.”

Weevil sighs, and plunks down on the stair above Echolls’. “That happen more than you’re comfortable with? Because it does for me.”

“Yeah. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll be friends.”

“And maybe one day, Neptune will freeze over.”

Echolls nods, and pushes himself up and off the porch. “Sounds about the right timeline. See you, Weevs.”

Weevil watches him weave his way through the yard, and back down the street. Grabs the beer, and looks at the check. Six thousand dollars. Not bad for less than a week’s worth of work, and hanging out with Vee besides. Heads inside.


End file.
